Edwardsburgh/Cardinal Mayor Pat Sayeau has threatened to pull the municipality’s money out of the Royal Bank of Canada if the bank follows through with plans to close its branch here.

The municipality now has in excess of $1 million sitting in the Spencerville branch, which pays less than the municipality could earn at market rates, Sayeau said.

The mayor said that Edwardsburgh/Cardinal was content to take a cut in bank interest in order to support the local RBC, but that goodwill has evaporated with the RBC’s surprise announcement that it would shutter the branch, which is the only bank branch in the township.

Sayeau added he can’t make township banking decisions on his own, and the final decision would have to be taken by council.

Sayeau told the township council meeting on Monday that he was informed of the bank’s decision in a phone call from an RBC executive only that afternoon.

Sayeau said the RBC’s call came out of the blue and its was “sad news” and “disappointing.”

“I told him it will not be well-received in the community and there will be a community response,” Sayeau said.

The RBC is informing its customers by mail this week that the branch will close in May of 2018. Their accounts will be automatically transferred to the Prescott branch or RBC branches in Iroquois or Kemptville if the customers request those locations instead.

No employees will be laid off – they will be given work at other RBC branches, the bank executive told Sayeau.

Sayeau said the bank’s decision is short-sighted because the township is going through a growth spurt as many new businesses and residents choose to locate in Edwardsburgh/Cardinal.

Although the RBC says the closing decision is final, Sayeau said a quick and a pointed community response might change the bank’s mind.

The response must come from the grassroots and it shouldn’t be led by the municipality itself, said Sayeau, adding the township would, however, support any community attempts to reverse the decision.

One resident prepared to help organize a protest is 70-year-old Pat Grant, a longtime RBC customer, who says she was “stunned” to hear that the branch would close.

Grant, who has lived in Spencerville for 50 years, said the township has never seen so much activity, yet the RBC wants to close.

“It’s just astounding to me that they would be pulling out at this time,” she said.

Grant characterized the bank’s decision as part of the disdain that other institutions hold for rural Ontario.

Many farmers and seniors in the area don’t trust online banking and they want to get their bank services face-to-face, she said.

“What is a 78- or 80-year-old woman who wants to pay her hydro bill in the winter supposed to do? Drive to Prescott?”

Grant said she is one of those people who doesn’t trust computers – she even has her pension cheque sent in the mail instead of direct-deposited. She visits the Spencerville branch two or three times a week.

But Grant said she will move to another bank if the RBC closes the branch.

“This community has supported this bank for a very long time,” Grant said. “I, for one, will no longer do so.”

Sayeau said he equates the value of a bank branch to a community the same as a school or a post office. Those institutions help to anchor a community the same as a big retailer might anchor a shopping mall, he said.